More Art Before the Year is Over!

Currently, I'm working in colored pencils on a still life of lavender roses in a beautiful handblown glass vase. I finally get to play with my new Icarus drawing board which gently melts the wax in the colored pencils as you draw and gives a beautiful burnished affect. I have most of the roses done and will next work on getting the vase underway. It's sitting on a glass top coffee table and I'm not sure if I'll include the surface as it may compete with the vase. I also bought a tin of Caran D'Ache Neopastels and will experiment using the pastels on this board!


I've been working real hard this year trying to develop my illustrative style with both the ATC cards and the moleskin journals. I have a long way to go, but I really like the "batik" look of a white outline around vivid color whether it be watercolors, markers, colored pencils or all of them. I plan to try my hand at writing and illustrating a book for children. I have had an idea for a story since last summer that involves a young girl, a flower garden and hummingbirds. One artist friend from my FIG group gave me a 5x7 moleskin and it's perfect to do a composite story in it first.


This past week I finished with a Day of the Dead spread for one of the artists in the first collaborative traveling journals. With the work from the previous artists, the journal seemed to suggest a narrative of a couple celebrating their marriage from church, then posing for a wedding photo, then going on a pirate cruise. Mine shows the lovebirds in Hawaii enjoying a luau!

I also completed and mailed my 2nd collaborative moleskin journal which officially starts with the coming new year. My theme for this journal is Ancient Eygpt and I think this journal will be a stunner when it comes back to me.


Finally, I played with colored pencils + metallic colored pencils on black paper for my December partner. It's a bit different from what I usually do - patterns, but it was fun and I hope she likes it - she collects butterflies.

Time to Reflect

Nine months have passed since I've immersed myself in drawing and painting. I've joined the Colored Pencil Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and I also belong to the Figure Inspiration Group where each Tuesday morning I meet with other artists at Liberty Station and draw/paint a model with the longest pose no more than 20 minutes. I also belong to several Artist Trading Card sites and had the opportunity to meet some of the San Diego artists from those sites. I had several pet portrait commissions and want to do more portraits - both of pets and persons. I plan to spread some portrait postcards and send them off to pet clubs, shops and other places where I can advertise. I also dabbled in making jewelry - copper beaded elephant pins which were fun. I opened my Red Bubble and Etsy shop, but I still need to put art in for sale. So here I sit and think about what I'd like to accomplish in the next year in becoming a better artist, to show more art work in shows, and to sell more of my art and my portraits.

The figure drawing above is of my most favorite model, Tory who is a blues/rock singer. This is a 20 minute pose and I loved that she put on the bunny ears and had that serious expression on her face! This isn't the best drawing, but I think I got a good likeness of her.

The elephant pins are all beaded in white, red, and blue seed beads. My artist friend picked Elephants as the animal theme this year. I plan on giving her the white beaded elephant pin and a few other things. I have three more to bead and they along with the blue & red one will be for sale on Etsy beginning next year. Well, now it's my turn to think about next year's themed animal!

Have a wonderful holiday season full of light, love and peace!

RC the Iguana

This is the first time I have done a pet portrait of an iguana and a welcomed change from a dog or cat. He is so colorful and beautiful in person and I hope I've captured him well. This is a well doted-on iguana and loves to have his head patted. It's done on 8.5 x 12 pastel paper in colored pencils.

A Little Time to Play

These ATCs are for a swap on International Women and I couldn't resist the temptation to join the swap. My next collaborative moleskin will be on the theme of Ancient Egypt and so I began with this Egyptian royal lady for practise. I have a November swap partner who want's a Japanese lady, so this Japanese lady will be the model for her card. In San Diego, you see plenty of beautiful Mexan ladies in traditional dress of all kinds, but I especially love the embroidered flower dress or blouse and own a few myself. Not only are they beautiful, but they are comfortable. I also own a few kimonos, but I only bring them out to show - never to wear. I also love Ireland and love Celtic art, here is a flaming redhead. You could never tell, but I have quite a bit of Irish and Japanese in me, and I came out looking like I could be from any country with dark haired brunettes.

Collaborative Moleskin Journal

In my previous posts, I mentioned that I'm involved in a collaborative moleskin journal that is traveling to 8 artists from IATC. My journal's theme for this group is "Famous Blond/White-haired Persons" throughout time and it's now on its way to Canada. It's been fun coming up with a story to illustrate based on the theme of each artist and I'm not so scared about making the intitial mark as I was with the first journal. One artist's theme is "Dark Fairytales" and she began her pages with "Snow White and the Seven Ghouls". The next artist did a modern day "Hansel and Gretal" with the evil witch being axed in a cute scene with a candy house and gum drop bushes. My story is "Little Red Ridinghood" involving a twisted hunt with Little Red as a vampire. As the hunt reaches its conclusion, I can see the trees turning completely red.

With the next journal, the artist based her theme on "Flash Tattoo," a theme I was hesitant about. I'm a bit squeamish about tattoos due to the needles, blood, and the pain thing, but I do love the art and the stories. I did a little research on tatoos, made one of deck project cards on my niece with an Ed Hardy design for the background, and I also designed a tattoo of a willow tree for my friend's son which a;; helped me warm up for this theme. This artist does beautiful Japanese themed art & people and I saw that she liked geishas, all my favorite themes. I wasn't sure if she wanted figures with tattoos on them, or the tattoo design itself, so I combined them both. My story is of a floating world of clouds with a geisha who exposes her tattood back looking at the tiger on the other cloud. With 2010, we enter the "Year of the Tiger" and can finally say goodbye to this very unsettling "Year of the Ox". The chrysanthemums is the flower for November and adds a nice design & boundary to end my page.

Michaelangelo's David

I had to immediately sign on to the "Michaelangelo's David" swap on IATC as soon as I saw it posted. I remember in art history class, that all the previous "Davids" from other artists were small in stature and delicate. Michaelangelo, however, made this huge David with every detail masterly carved and smoothed. I wanted to catch the expression of the anticipated wariness in this David's eyes as Goliath approaches and the atheletic vein running down David's arm and hand . Of the four cards, I think these two came out the best. I love working in graphite and find I'm much more loose than say, markers! There's something about markers and pens that screams you can't make any mistakes and it's so all hard-edged-boundaries...it just intimidates me. I still struggle with markers and with illustration although it's been over a year and I still haven't found my niche. With graphite, I find that you can make as many mistakes as you want - you just incorporate it into the full expression! I also love the shiny black contrast of the soft 4b pencil in the background.

Playing with Elephants

This is a quick gestural sketch for "Dustbath" and above is the final painting.

It's been awhile, but I'm painting a bit larger in acrylics. I've only been painting on ATCs in the last two years and before that....well it was over a decade since I painted really large and in oil. So I'm taking baby steps back to large scale.

This is my first elephant in acrylic with the dominant color of iridescent gold. It's very shimmery in real life and it's a small painting with the dimensions of 8x10 inches. Because it's mostly gold, I tried to use dynamic color but in a soft expressive way. I originally wanted to enter the Foothills Art Association "Wildlife" competition, but yesterday I researched the winner from last year and the winning artist also did an elephant. I guess I should of researched in the beginning before deciding my animal. Tomorrow is the deadline and I'll have to make up my mind, otherwise this painting will be no. 4 of the 5 needed to get juried into the Artists for Critters or other wildlife art societies.

I'll next be painting elephants in watercolor, but I'll be adapting a style from an artist's lesson plan. I just want to get refamiliarized again working large scale and in watercolors.